“For decades, the global aid system has operated from a familiar script. We use terms like capacity building, enabling, and strengthening. They sound impressive in grant applications and reports, but on the ground where real lives are lived, they are just words.
Words aren’t enough in moments of crisis, like the current devastating floods in Kenya, which have killed more than 80 people. In these pivotal moments, it is the local players, not external ones, who step up first, stay the longest, and carry the heaviest load.
Behind the old script is an outdated assumption that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international aid actors are here to “save” people.
And once you are in the business of saving, a pattern emerges. External agencies swoop in and start telling communities what to do, how to do it, and when. They control the narrative, the resources, and the decision-making.
But I know that real solutions come from within communities, not from outside them.
In my community of Kibera, east Africa’s largest slum, I see champions daily stepping up to lead. Local emergency response teams step up to rescue people from floodwaters. Teachers, without resources, create handmade, engaging educational materials for students. Community health promoters walk dozens of kilometers daily to identify pregnant women in need.
The current NGO playbook has a template for nearly everything – how to spend money, how to build capacity, how to measure success. But to make aid more effective, we need to ensure these local leaders play more than just a supporting role in their own stories.
They need to be the main characters.”
Read the full op-ed on News Africa Times.
